In a relationship, when does the art of compromise become compromising? - Sarah Jessica Parker

12.

"Morning Bren." Angela breezed into her friend's office the Monday after Sweets and Daisy's wedding. When the woman in question failed to respond to her greeting, she settled into the chair in front of her desk and leaned in to peer at her laptop screen. "Bren?"

"Hmm?"

The artist tried again. "Ground Control to Major Tom?"

Brennan glanced up briefly, distracted, "What? Angela."

Finally catching the words on the screen, she took in a large breath. "Oh my God Bren, please tell me that there's a good reason for you to be reading up on the District's marriage laws?"

"Yes. I am trying to determine whether by co-habitating together and being involved in a sexual relationship Booth and I are in a Common Law Marriage."

"And this is important, why?"

"Because I am attempting to find a compromise that will be acceptable to both Booth and myself."

"Did Booth propose?" Her eyes gleamed in excitement that dimmed when the other woman shook her head no. "Then what?" The question trailed off in confusion.

"Why did you decide to marry Dr. Hodgin's?"

"What?"

"Before you met Jack you were not inclined towards marriage, your brief elopement notwithstanding. And yet, you are now married, and apparently quite content with your choice. What changed?"

"I met Jack."

"And?"

"And I fell in love."

"You have informed me on numerous occasions that you have been in love with each of your sexual partners, albeit on short term basis. I use your relationship with Roxie as an example. You broke up with her but subsequently tried to rekindle the relationship. Would you have married her if the option had been available to you at the time?

"No sweetie, no. Roxie and I. No."

"What is the difference in the love you felt for Roxie as opposed to Dr. Hodgins? You tried more than once at both relationships, so being in love with the right person was not the only factor in your decision.

"Roxie and I were young and broke up because we wanted different things. We got back together out of nostalgia more than anything. Jack and I, we knew what we wanted and that we wanted it together, we just weren't ready the first time around."

"But you were ready a few months ago?"

"No."

"I find that I do not understand your reasoning."

Angela laughed. "Neither do I. That's the beauty of love. It defies logic."

"Do you believe that marriage has strengthened your commitment to each other?"

"Considering we weren't even dating at the time? Yes."

"Would your relationship now be different if you had not gotten married?"

"Honestly? I don't know. It feels like it would have been. It feels very… permanent, now. Do you remember when we were first together and I turned Jack's proposal down several times before saying yes?"

"Yes, I recall that I was very confused by your abrupt change of plans and rapid marriage preparations."

"Did I ever tell you why I eventually said yes?"

"No, you mentioned something about phosphorescent shrimp, but you did not explain."

"Oh God, the glowing shrimp! He wrote out 'I love you' in shrimp. I couldn't believe it. He decided that being with me was enough, and suddenly all my objections were gone. He loved me enough not to let my resistance to marriage break us up. It was very romantic in a slightly disturbing sort of way."

There was silence on Brennan's end for a beat before she hesitantly spoke up. "I am not convinced that Booth and I could remain together if I refused his proposal. He would take it as a slight against his masculinity."

"Oh Hun. You know Booth loves you more than just about everything in this world."

Brennan didn't object to the comment, but reined the conversation back into her original intent. "You and Dr. Hodgin's still broke up for a significant amount of time despite your love for one another. Was the stress of you already being married the reason, or was it something else?

"I really don't know. I mean, if the whole Fiji married thing hadn't happened and we had gotten married as planned? I think we would have been well passed the leather anniversary by now."

"Leather...?"

"It's tradition. You're supposed to buy leather for a third anniversary gift."

"Oh yes, it is a symbolic representation of your ties and commitment. The greater the years together the greater the value of the gift..."

"Sure, but what I was trying to say is that I think we would have found a way to stay together. Not wasted so much time trying to figure things out alone."

"So the whole "Fiji married" thing was the catalyst for your breakup?"

"Yes and no, sweetie. Sure it sped things up, but our doubts were the cause."

"And you believe being married would have eased those doubts?"

"It would have held us together long enough for us to work through the doubts."

"For many relationships, it seems that those doubts cannot be worked through," Brennan countered.

"That's why you also need love and communication and fidelity and trust and a bunch of other things. A life with someone else isn't held together just by one thing."

"And what if you have all those things but the marriage? What if you already have the trust and love and commitment? Is marriage really that necessary to bind it all together?"

"Oh Bren, I don't know. Maybe? Maybe not? You have to do what's right for you and Booth."

Brennan looked down and asked softly, "Ang, what if what's right for me isn't what's right for Booth?"

Angela reached out and grabbed her friend's hand gently. "Then you have a choice: one of you compromises or you both walk away."

"I don't want to walk away." The scientist admitted.

"Then you know what you have to do."

(.xxx.)

"Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of rampant ritualized group sex, mate-swapping, unrestrained casual affairs, and socially sanctioned sequential sex were all reported in cultures that anthropologists insist are monogamous simply because they've determined that something they call "marriage" takes place there. No wonder so many insist that marriage, monogamy, and the nuclear family are human universals. With such all-encompassing interpretations of the concepts, even the prairie vole, who "sleeps with anyone," would qualify." - Christopher Ryan, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

(.xxx.)

Dr. Lance Sweets apologetically ushered his patient out the door and turned back to the impatient man standing in the middle of his office. "Agent Booth, I believe we've previously discussed you barging into my office without an appointment?"

Booth shrugged. "And yet you never throw me out when I do."

"It's severely disruptive and unfair to my other patients," the psychologist reprimanded.

The agent ignored him and settled into the couch. "What are you doing here anyway? Didn't you just get married? Shouldn't you be on your honeymoon?"

The other man grinned deliriously and then straightened his features as if suddenly remembering where he was and who he was with. "Both Daisy and I have commitments that we can't get away from at the moment, so we decided to put off the honeymoon for a few weeks. I myself have to make up some time for patients whose sessions keep getting interrupted…"

"It'll never happen again." He smiled insincerely. "Happy?"

"I would be happier if I believed you meant anything in that last statement."

"Sweets, can we get to the point now? I have things to do."

Sweets didn't bother to bite back the sarcasm as he replied, "Sure, don't let me interrupt you."

"Great." Booth tossed an earth shaped stress ball into the air. "Look, I know I said I was done asking for your advice, but I don't have a lot of options, and I know you're good at figuring people out."

"Okay?" Sweets prompted cautiously.

"How do I convince Bones to marry me?"

"I… Wow. You're going to propose to Dr. Brennan? That's awesome!" The deliriously happy sensation returned.

"Maybe. I don't know. That's not. She doesn't believe in marriage right now, so the whole asking thing is a little moot right now."

"Right now? As in you believe there is a point in time where she will change her mind?"

"She never used to believe in my gut or having kids or love before. If I can change her mind about those things…"

"I find it interesting that you believe it is your influence that has changed her."

"Well, yeah. She's basically told me that."

"So, you want to change Dr. Brennan's core beliefs in order to align with your own."

"It sounds bad when you say it like that, but yeah. Only on the big things though. "

"Like love, marriage…religion?"

"Whoa, slow down there! We're not touching that last one."

"Have you ever changed any of your core beliefs for Dr. Brennan?"

"I, um. I used to think that only cops solved murders. "

"Anything else?"

"Nothing's popping up, but I'm sure there are lots of things. Besides, it's not like I came up with this. She's asking me to convince her."

"Agent Booth, can I be straight with you?"

"I don't know, can you?" Booth challenged.

Sweets sighed, knowing he deserved the dig. He persevered, "You want to know how to convince Dr. Brennan to marry you?"

With reluctance Booth nodded, "Yeah."

Lance Sweets took a calculated gamble, knowing it could backfire horribly. "Threaten to break up with her if she doesn't."

The other man's face hardened and he rose to his feet. "This is not a game. I've warned you about playing with us and so help me if you're manipulating us again…"

Sweets shrunk back. "It's not a manipulation." He held up his hands in surrender. "I know my intervention in the past has angered you…"

"That wasn't an intervention - that was cruelty." Booth muttered.

"I am an employee of the Bureau and I had to make sure she could handle things in the field. None of us, including you and Dr. Brennan, were sure. Now we are. It was a necessary evil." He shrugged in defense, "I only participated at Dr. Brennan's request."

Despite the fact that they'd dealt with the fallout months before when Booth had come bursting into his office, there was still a great deal of tension between the agent and the psychologist. It had come close to blows, but Booth had stopped himself when he saw the fear on the other man's face. This was the first time Booth had approached Sweets for anything unrelated to a case in months and he wondered if he'd made a mistake. "I don't know where you get off suggesting I break up with Bones, but it's not going to happen."

"Will you sit so I can explain?" Sweets asked patiently.

Booth reluctantly slid back to his seat. "You better have a good one," he threatened.

"In my discussions with, and observations of, Dr. Brennan over the past several years, I have come to believe that her views on marriage were not formed in the same manner as her previous views on love and intimacy. Those views were developed based on her childhood trauma and fears of abandonment. Her views on marriage appear to have formed similarly to her views on society, anthropology…and religion. I find it fascinating that she is so opposed to marriage when she grew up with such positive role models while you with your less than happy childhood are so for it."

"Okay, enough with the psychoanalyzing. You're saying that her views on marriage are what, science based?"

"Essentially, yes. I believe that it is an issue she has studied extensively and formed conclusions on based on proof, or rather the absence of proof. She has weighed the evidence, so to speak, and has found it lacking. The way she sees it is that it is a societal construct that may be positive for some people, but that it can just as easily turn out to be negative. It's very similar to her agnostic take on religion. Whereas you look at both subjects and choose to have faith in the unknown, she looks at them and chooses not to believe until it can be proven otherwise."

"I still don't see what this has to do with my breaking up with her."

"Take a look at it this way: if she asked you to stop believing in God, would you?"

"No, but she would never ask that of me."

"What if she said that you could still believe in God, but that you had to stop going to church or she'd leave you."

"Why would she do that? It makes no sense."

"Because she doesn't believe in your religion and your belief is getting between you. Would you?"

"I…. I don't. Maybe? If it was that important to her. I'd hate it, but…."

"Okay, look at this way, love is to marriage as God is to church. Take away the church but you still have God. Take away the marriage, but you still have…?" He prompted.

"Love."

"Exactly."

"Okay, now stop and apply this hypothetical ultimatum to getting married. Assume that Dr. Brennan feels about marriage the way you feel about not going to church."

Booth frowned. "So you're saying that the only way she'd give up her stance on marriage would be if our relationship was at risk."

The younger man beamed internally, presenting a more serious façade to the man across from him. "Do you understand now?"

"What if you're wrong? What if she's wrong? What if we have more to gain?"

"What if you're wrong? What if you have more to lose?" Sweets glanced at his watch. "Look Agent Booth, I'm not sure if I've helped, but I have another appointment in two minutes. Perhaps we can schedule an appointment for later in the day?"

The agent was standing and shaking his head before the other man finished his sentence. "No, no. I've got it. I'll figure it out. Thanks for listening," he added grudgingly.

The door closed on Sweets, "You're welcome." He smiled to the empty room.

(.xxx.)

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. " - Erma Bombeck

(.xxx.)

Camille Saroyan studied her old friend for several seconds through the clear panes of his office before lightly tapping on the rim. Part of her was anticipating this conversation with gleeful abandon. The other half was terrified of his reaction to her meddling in his life. She couldn't help but intervene. It wasn't just about him – Dr. Brennan was driving her crazy.

He glanced up at her knock and grinned slightly. "Camille," he mocked.

"Seeley," she acknowledged as slid both her smile and her body onto the chair across from him.

"So, what do I owe the pleasure?" he quizzed.

Her voice carefully controlled, she stated, "You asked Dr. Brennan to marry you."

His feet dropped to the ground from their casual perch on his desk. "Wha... No!" He sputtered. "What?"

"You asked Dr. Brennan to marry you."

"I didn't!"

"You didn't?"

"No!"

"Then why is she quizzing every man, woman, and security guard in the lab about their positions on, what was it? Oh yes, marital monogamy? I had an intern burst into tears in my office after being interrogated about her parent's divorce."

"She's...? Oh, no." He ran his palm over his face. "Of course she's doing that."

"What did you do Seeley?" She raised her eyebrow in amusement. "I don't usually discuss Nikah urfi before my morning coffee."

He raised his eyebrows at the reference, but chose not to comment. "Sweets and Daisy's wedding. I sorta asked her if she'd considered it." He sighed. "She said she hadn't, no surprise. But then I challenged her, and she, she asked me to prove it to her."

"So of course you agreed," she teased knowingly.

"I want to marry her Camille, I do."

"Then I wish you luck Big Man. Just..."

He picked up on her hesitation, "Just what?"

"Just remember who you're talking about Seeley. She is not a conventional woman and neither is your relationship. I don't want to see you hurt again if she says no. You don't take rejection well. You talk a good game, but I know you've got your heart set on convincing her, and if you can't. I fear the consequences."

"I'm not going to abandon her if she says no."

"But can you truly be happy if she doesn't say yes?" His old friend shot back. "Your track record isn't the greatest on this."

"I'm happy with Bones, Cam, marriage or no marriage."

"Then why is this so important to you?"

"I. I don't know Camille, I wish I did."

She smiled and stood to leave. "Maybe you should figure that out before you make your case. And please talk to her. I don't want to deal with anymore crying interns today. Or security guards," she joked.

(.xxx.)

I can't be a wife. I'm not that sort of person. Wives have to compromise all the time. - Sarah Brightman

(.xxx.)

Dr. Temperance Brennan stood in front of the mirror and nervously brushed her fingers across her abdomen, her fingers catching lightly on the taffeta and tulle confection she wore. Tears welled in her eyes as she stared at her reflection.

"Oh, you look absolutely divine! Your finance will love that!" A voice from behind her startled her. She blinked back the moisture in her eyes.

"I am quite beautiful, yes. But I am not engaged to be married."

The saleswoman visibly faltered. "But you hope to be soon?" she queried, her hopes for a sale starting to wane even as she spoke.

"No." Brennan answered matter-of-factly, her eyes still on the wedding dress she wore. "May I have a moment?" she asked.

"Oh yes, yes of course," the woman stuttered.

The dress was only what could be described as a princess dress, straight out of a Disney movie. The bodice was draped with what she thought was called a tender heart neckline. The skirt glistened like the glass in Cinderella's slipper. It wasn't her typical style. She preferred classic, simple lines with dramatic accessories. This was...this was Booth's influence, and Angela's. They were the emotional ones, the romantics. This is who she thought they wanted her to be, secretly, despite their claims to the contrary.

She closed her eyes and attempted to picture herself walking towards Booth in this costume. She could see the scenario quite clearly – the church, the friends and family. Parker would be ring-bearer, or rather, she supposed considering his pre-teen status, his father's best man. Angela would stand for her. Her father and brother would be there, Pops, Jared, Cam and Hodgin's and Sweets and Caroline. Perhaps one of Russ' stepdaughters would be a flower girl. Others would be there that she was not so closely acquainted with, but with whom Booth would insist share their day. Her skin itched at the images. She wasn't certain if it was due to her attire or emotion. Rationally she thought it might be the tulle, irrationally she refused to consider the psychological answer.

She wanted to be unselfish. She wanted to give Booth the vision she imagined for them. But dark thoughts kept encroaching. The vision was a lie. The dress was a waste of money, a silly indulgence. The symbolism of the dress and the veil – it was a cipher. It meant nothing to her. There was so much good she could do with those thousands of dollars wasted. Angela would stand beside her, yes, but she would ultimately hate her dress, looking forward to the party afterwards, perhaps the vicarious thrill of the kiss. Their friends and family would be there to support them, but hadn't they proved over and over that they would be there regardless of the circumstances? Didn't they get together often to celebrate their achievements? Why was it necessary to do this, when she and Booth were already a committed couple, already determined to share their love and their lives together? She would not allow her father to give her away. Not when he'd given her away long before. Parker would be excited, but ultimately bored with all the formality. The church was a joke. Booth's Catholicism would look down on him for marrying her, determined that she was doomed to hell for her agnosticism despite all the good she had accomplished. Forgiveness could only go so far when one did not repent their actions. He would once again have to circumvent his faith for her. She shuddered, it was all a dream, a lie, a fabrication.

The saleswoman entered the room and cleared her throat just as her cell phone rang. She stumbled on the raised platform and moved toward the changing room. "Brennan,'" she answered, slightly breathless.

"Bones?" the voice on the other end asked and she smiled in spite of herself. "Where are you?" His voice was tinged with frustration.

"I am shopping." She answered. "I told you earlier that I had intended to run some errands this afternoon."

"Yeah, but it's been hours." His impatience was almost childlike and she felt herself bristle.

"Is there a reason you called Booth?"

"There's a body Bones. Where are you? I'll come pick you up."

Her heart skipped a beat. He could not know about this. Never. "I have my car. It would be more convenient to meet you there. If you'd send me the address and inform Cam as well."

"But I..."

"Booth," she warned.

He sighed. "Okay," and proceeded to give her directions on how where to find him.

"Booth?" She cut in as his instructions started to wane.

"Yeah Bones?"

"I...never mind. I will see you at the scene soon."

"Okay. Twenty minutes Bones, you got it?"

She glanced down at the dress and quickly up at the mirror once more. "Yes Booth, I have it."

She backed out of the change room in search of the saleswoman. The woman looked at her questioningly, "Will you take it?"

She shook her head. "I have to leave. Can you help me with the fastenings on the back?"

The woman's eyes dimmed, the sale lost. Brennan's own eyes were dark and sad.

(.xxx.)

Disclaimer: If it's not already glaringly obvious - the characters of Bones do not belong to me. No infringement of copyright is intended.